


Too Late

by SaltiSnacks



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Reality, Angst, Cussing, Heartbreak, Let Keith have his happy ending, Love Confessions, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-16
Updated: 2018-12-26
Packaged: 2019-09-19 19:15:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17007558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaltiSnacks/pseuds/SaltiSnacks
Summary: Shiro has just been married and Keith is suffering.I debated not posting this because of hurting Shiro, but...





	1. Too Late

**Author's Note:**

> I'm using the alternate realities for good, not evil!
> 
> This isn't beta read. Sorry for any errors I didn't catch!

Keith was a mess. He had just watched the love of his life marry someone else. He had left before the reception. Life wasn’t fair.

Kosmo licked at his tears. “Shiro…”

His mom was due to collect him in a few minutes. She knew he wanted to leave Earth as soon as possible.

“Keith.” The soft voice called from the air, stunning him.

“Allura?!” He jumped off the floor to his feet and spun around the room. “Allura, where are you?”

“Find happiness, Keith.”

The air started to shimmer. Kosmo whined. What looked like a bright rip in the fabric of space opened in front of him.

“What? Allura, what's going on?”

“Keith? Keith!” A voice yelled through the bright void. “ _Keith_!”

Something crashed into him, knocking him to the floor. Kosmo snarled.

Above him was Shiro. Not _his_ Shiro, but… He bristled. He scrambled for the blade attached to his side. “Get off me, Kuron!”

“No! In my reality we fixed it! Pidge found the mind control device in my arm and deactivated it. Then Allura merged me back into myself from the black lion. It's me. I thought I lost you.” He was stunned as he was pulled into strong arms. “You died, Keith.”

“Died?”

A knock. “Keith?” His door slid open and a stunned Shiro wearing a tux stood in the doorway. “What the…”

The other Shiro lurched to his feet. His arm blazed with purple light, the other still around Keith's waist, holding him off the floor before helping him to his feet.

“The door can not stay open much longer. Go. Be happy, Keith.”

“ _Allura?!_ ” This reality’s Shiro dropped his jaw as he tried to find the sound of the voice.

“You fool.” It dawned on the other Shiro as he looked his counterpart up and down before glancing at Keith. “You _idiot_!”

“Excuse me?” Shiro bristled.

“I’m taking him. He's mine now. You’ve made your bed. Now lie in it. Tell him, Keith.”

“What?”

“That you love him. But, it seems he’s chosen another. I don’t understand what is happening, but in my reality you died. Died in my arms after crashing back to Earth. It was then…I realized…what this fool couldn't. Wouldn't. I love you. I love you not as a friend, but as a lover. Come with me, Keith, to my reality.”

A choked sound came from Shiro, still motionless in the doorway. “Keith? Do you... Why didn't you _say_ anything?!”

“I… I…” Anger boiled. "I did! When I fought you, I did!"

"You said that I was your brother!"

"And you should have known that wasn't what I meant!"

"Come with me, Keith. It doesn't look like you'll be happy here. I can see it in your face. He hurt you. Badly. Let me love you as he should have."

Shiro choked again. "Keith. Why? I never meant to... I'm an idiot!" He fisted his hands into his hair and tugged hard before releasing a sorrowful small cry while staring at Keith.

He was so confused as he looked between the two. One set of eyes held an emotion he never thought he would see shining from them. “Shiro?”

“Yea. It's me. Come to my reality. Cool wolf by the way.”

“Kosmo. What about my mom?”

“Your mom? Krolia? She wants you back, too. She cried for you for days. Galra feel emotions quite strongly. That’s why they always try to hide them. You, too. You love with _all_ your heart.” He sneered at the gaping figure across the room. “Please, come with me, Keith. Your dad misses you, too.”

Keith choked. “Dad.”

“Yea.”

“But he's…”

“Maybe here, but not there.” He pointed back over his shoulder.

Keith took a step toward the shining doorway.

“Keith…no. Keith. Don't.” The tux wearing Shiro finally took a step into the room, stretching his human hand toward Keith. “I'll…I'll fix this. We haven't signed the papers yet. Oh god. I fucked up. Don't…Don’t leave me. Please! I do! I do love you! Stay! Stay with me."

Finally. _Finally_. What he had hoped for was shining in those eyes.

But the ring shown brighter on his finger. A promise already made.

All the months of no communication. The meetings with no eye contact. The avoidance.

“I will _never_ give up on you.” Shiro winced as those words were thrown back at him by his twin.

“Keith. Don’t do this.”

“We can't hold the door much longer.” Allura's phantom voice floated through the air.

The sun through the blinds made Shiro's white tux glow. His white hair brilliant. The ring caught the light. His vows to Curtis still ringing through Keith's head.

He pulled out his communicator and held the button. “Mom, I love you. Goodbye, everyone. I have a chance to be happy and I’m taking it.”

“No!” Shiro shot out his prosthetic, trying to stop him, but it was batted out of the way by another metal arm.

His communicator lit up as everyone tried to contact him at once. “Goodbye, Shiro. Be happy with Curtis.”

“No! Keith!”

He tried. They disappeared through the shining light with Kosmo and it blinked out of existence before he could reach it.

“Aaaugh! Come back! Keith!”

He beat on the wall. Cursed. Begged Allura. Begged anyone.

But it was too little.

Too late.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I debated not posting this because I've hurt Shiro, but...

Krolia was the first to find him curled on the floor. His fingernails bloody from clawing at the wall. Crying. Screaming. Begging.

She noticed the absence of her son. The strange message that had come across all lines of communication. “He's gone, isn't he?”

Shiro sobbed. “Yes. It's all my fault. He just walked away to another reality!”

Krolia stood tall. “I will not weep for my son. If he is happy wherever he is, then I am happy for him. I will miss him, make no mistake about that. But, if he has found the joy and love he needs, then I am glad. He didn’t find it here.” She glared down at Shiro.

He stared at her and the snarl on her face. “You knew?”

“Yes, I did. I’ve known of his love for you. All of his good happy memories all held you.”

The door slid open again and his new _husband_ ran to his side. Bile rose in his throat as he twisted away. “Don't touch me.”

Confused, Curtis pulled away. “Shiro, what's wrong?”

The others filed into the room. “Where's Keith? What was that strange message?” Pidge looked around the room.

“He's… He's gone.”

“What?” Curtis again tried to touch him, but Shiro batted away the hand.

“Get away from me! You… _You_! You’re the one that blinded me!”

Curtis flinched away. “Shiro?”

“Keith! And, now he's gone. Out of my reach. I’m so stupid.” He banged on the wall. “How could I not see it? I was supposed to be his best friend!”

“See what, Shiro?”

“That he loved me! That he was _in_ love with me!”

“Oh, Shiro.” It was Hunk. “We thought you knew and turned him down.”

“ _What_?!” Shiro spun to face them all. Even Curtis wouldn’t meet his eyes. “You all knew! Even you, Curtis?!”

“It was all over his face, Shiro. How did you not see it?”

Hunk was livid. “You broke his heart! He saved you over and over and over again! Put his life on the line. For you! What did you need to see it?! A billboard?!”

“Why didn't anyone _tell_ me?!”

Lance sighed. “Listen, Shiro, I need to tell you… Sometimes Allura talks to me in my dreams. She tells me stories of the other realities. They're amazing. In one, Pidge is six feet tall and has yellow fur.”

He chuckled, but it held no real humor. “But… whoever she fell in love with in each reality loses her. Every incarnation of her and Honerva from every reality was needed to repair the destruction.

But there was always one constant. Like a tether holding them together. It didn’t matter if one died or both, the love they share lived on. It’s you and Keith. Together. An unbreakable force in every reality. Except in this one it seems.”

“What?!” Everyone in the room was staring at Lance in various stages of disbelief.

“Oh god, no.”

“I tried to get him to talk to you. I really did. I told him what Allura said, but he wouldn't listen. He just wanted you happy at the expense of his own self.”

“No. Nonono!” He hit that wall, splitting the knuckles on his human hand. “Keith! Come back!”

Later, Takahashi Shirogane started walking and didn't stop. Never to be seen or heard from again.

The little reality, no longer tied to the rest, spun away into the ether.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Maybe Allura felt pity and opened a door for him to find Keith in another reality.


End file.
